Women's Water Polo 3/4/2016 11:55:00 PM UCSD

No. 12 UCSD Opens Claremont Convergence With Pair of Wins

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The 12th-ranked UC San Diego women's water polo team opened up the Claremont Convergence, hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer, with two wins against La Verne and Whittier, Friday at Axelrood Pool on the campus of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The Tritons beat the Leopards 15-10 in game one and took down the Sagehens 14-5 in the second game.

UCSD improves to 10-6 on the season. La Verne drops to 3-1. Whittier is now 9-3.

GAME ONE – UC San Diego 15, La Verne 10
UCSD opened to a three-score lead at the end of the first quarter and took a 15-10 win over La Verne.

The Leopards got the first goal of the game to take their only lead. The Tritons ended the opening quarter scoring four unanswered, getting one each from junior center Lauren Boyer, senior attacker Laurel Kistler, freshman center Chanel Schilling and senior center Lauren Finwall.

UCSD allowed three La Verne goals in each in the second, third and fourth period.

The Tritons scored four in the second frame to go into halftime up, 8-4. With two seconds left before the intermission, goalie Emma Scholz found freshman attacker Shelby Stender for a counter attack goal.

UCSD put away seven and allowed six goals in the second half to earn a five-point victory, 15-10. The Tritons got the first goal of the fourth quarter as Miller found Kistler for the score from across the pool to complete her hat trick. Boyer was able to complete her hat trick a minute later, rifling one from two-meters.

Scholz compiled six goals. Kistler and Boyer led UCSD with three goals each.

GAME TWO - UC San Diego 14, Whittier 5
Leading by one goal after the first quarter, the Tritons outscored Whittier 11-3 in the last three periods to win by a final score of 14-5.

UCSD and the Poets exchanged goals in the opening period in a you-score-I-score fashion. The Tritons got three goals, two from Kistler and one from Boyer, to lead 3-2 at the end of the quarter.

UCSD blew the game wide open in the second frame, finding the back of the cage seven times. Whittier scored two in the period as the Tritons took a 10-4 advantage into halftime.

UCSD shut out the Poets in the third quarter, 2-0, getting goals from Kistler and Boyer. The two teams each put away one in the fourth period as the Tritons cruised to win by nine.

Courtney Miller amassed 14 saves. Kistler and Boyer both recorded hat tricks. Kistler record five goals and Boyer had three. Whittier got five goals from five different players.

The Tritons close out the Claremont Convergence with two games on Saturday, March 5. UCSD takes on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer.

GAME ONE
UCSD 4 4 4 3 - 15
ULV 1 3 3 3 - 10

Goals
UCSD: Laurel Kistler 3, Lauren Boyer 3, Julia Kirkland 2, Chanel Schilling 2, Lauren Finwall 1, Maddy Wieseler 1, Alexis Wieseler 1, Krista Schneider 1, Shelby Stender 1